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Man
Beast
Starring Rock Madison and Asa
Maynor. Directed by Jerry Warren.
BijouFlix regulars are familiar with the
amazing work of Jerry "Mix n' Match" Warren. For
decades, Warren fashioned a shoestring career out of purchasing
awful Mexican flix and re-editing them with new scenes into
awful American flix, with such exploitation monikers as
THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN.
The
usual lot of 'has-been' actors wandered in and out of the
American scenes Warren shot on the cheap Stateside, and
in most of his latter efforts, the lack of production values
for the American footage contrasted with the often good
production values of the higher-budgeted Mex fare is ludricously
bad.
 But
in his first flick MAN BEAST (1956)? Believe
it or not, there is ample evidence contained within its
frames that Warren once had higher ambitions as a director/producer.
Though of course it is damning with faint praise, MAN
BEAST is definitely the high point, so to speak,
of Warren's unsteallar albeit steady output.
The
story of MAN BEAST is one of the reasons
why this effort lingers as favorable when most Warren flix
leave a vaguely "used" feeling in the average
viewer (whomever that is!). But herein, Warren's obvious
care in producing the best he could -- which is to say,
barely adequate but professional in most respects -- at
least throws a curve ball into the folks who pitch the argument
"there's no such thing as a good Jerry Warren flick."
Strike
one for pitcher in the Yeti suit! Because, flaws and all,
MAN BEAST is a perfectly fine B-movie in the 50's
monster sense, at once beholden to the headlines about yeti
it exploits and at the same time managing a minor suspenser
concerning a wife searching for a missing husband who has
vanished in the... Himalayas.
Forsaking reason, she engages a local
Sherpa to act as guide. Saner minds try to reason with her,
but she  departs
into the mountains, determined to discover her husband's
fate. And as the first yeti pops  up
from beneath the snowdrifts undetected by her search party,
you just know: things are not going to 'go' as she intended.
Indeed, they're about to go horribly wrong.
That's
enough about the plot. There are some narrative twists worth
preserving for intended viewers, and further story details
would ruin 'em. Suffice to say, Warren's wise decision to
hire a screenwriter results in a much finer production than
his norm.
Enough
easy 'cheap' shots; Warren's been positively abused in this
regard, perhaps rightly so. But here's to him for doing
what few else would do in his day: import Mexican movies
and consistently distribute them in America. This not only
enriched him but the Mexican film industry, which was glad
to have at  least
one Gringo who "got it" and did business with
them (even if he, uhm, "altered" them for the
American market).
While
it is easy to laugh at his movies, in short, don't forget
to soberly remind yourself that were it not for Mr. Warren's
admittedly bad efforts, there would have been no Mexican
cinema shown as widely as his efforts were theatrically
in their day.
The
studios certainly had no interest in building a market and
taste for foreign flix -- witness their continuing xenophobia
to this day -- and so, bad or great, Warren at least had
the audacity, tenacity and pretty decent editing skills
to patch together disparate elements into a semi-coherent
whole (sometimes).
 So
hidden in the junk flix he imported and ruthlessly recut,
Warren did what no other showman in his era did: popularize
Mexican cinema amongst mostly Anglo American kiddies who
grew up contentedly watching his releases in suburban matinees
and drive-ins with the parents and who would have never
otherwise knowingly nor willingly seen a Mexican flick.
Pretty
devious and probably unintended, but if your taste runs
to anything non-American in flix, Warren is a name you should
know if not at least have cursory respect. And as MAN
BEAST demonstrates, he was capable of much better
than his career ever otherwise produced, which ala
Orson Welles and Ed Wood gives his career an inevitably
sad overtone. 
For
Yeti/Bigfoot enthusiasts, this is a true 'must-see.' The
serious tone of the handling of the creature, along with
a pseudo-mythology of its origins and means of survival,
makes MAN BEAST almost believable at times.
As fans of Cine du Sasquatch know and know well,
making an entertaining Yeti flick is not an easy task;
making one that is almost two-point-five dimensional as
this effort is as rare as the oxygen on top of Mount Everest.
--
Notes by Roger Patterson.
What
Critics Say:
"Actually
pretty amazing — a coherent Jerry Warren film...by no
means a classic, but it's probably the best thing Jerry Warren
ever did and is actually worth a watch." -- Dave Sindelar,
SCIFILM
"Not bad for a '50s B-movie about the yeti." --
ubik-11, IMDB.com
"Made by the future director of FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND and
THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN... for one scene involving the
exterior of a temple, Warren jumped a fence onto another set
and began shooting." -- ghast1957, IMDB.com
Like this flick? See also:
CREATURE
FROM BLACK LAKE;
SNOWBEAST;
NIGHT
OF THE DEMON;
SASQUATCH,
THE LEGEND OF BIGFOOT
|
Mind
Snatchers, The
 aka
The Demon Within aka The Happiness
Cage. Starring Chris Walken, Ronny Cox & Ralph
Meeker.
Also
known as THE HAPPINESS CAGE and THE DEMON WITHIN,
THE MIND SNATCHERS (1972) features one of Christopher
Walken's strongest early performances. He plays a neurotic
American soldier stationed in Denmark who is sent to an Army
loony bin and tampered with ala Alex in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.
The similarities end there, however, between Kubrick's work
and this more ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST or THE NINTH
CONFIGURATION toned effort. At the center of the movie's success
is the MIDNIGHT COWBOY-ish friendship that develops between
Walken and fellow inmate hick Ronny Cox, whose pathetic counter
portrayal to Walken's more icy veneer gives the movie an emotional
balance often lacking in most SF efforts.
 Ralph
Meeker plays the slimy military brass all in favor of Walken's
brains being scrambled if it suits Higher Ups. Though he's
much longer in the tooth, Meeker is at his sneering, scumbag
'best' in this later effort, distant and condescending as
his equally king jerk of all
times Mike Hammer in KISS ME, DEADLY. --
Notes by R. U. Holden.
What
Critics Say:
 "Excellent
performances by two of the guinea pigs, Ronny Cox and Christopher
Walken, keep Rony Whyte's screenplay... on a heightened edge,
as does the presence of sinister Army officer Ralph Meeker."
-- John Stanley, CREATURE FEATURES MOVIE GUIDE |
 Ms.
45
Aka
Ms 45: The Sweet Avenger aka Angel
of Vengeance. Starring Zoë Tamerlis. Directed
by Abel Ferrara.
Abel
Ferrara and his screenwriter Nicholas St. John worked
together like an early Scorcese and Schrader combination,
but on the street real, exploitation level that the latter
two all but abandoned as soon as Hollywood came calling.
Not that Ferrara hasn’t had his shots in and around
Tinseltown; rather, his best work remains the rawer, grade
B stuff because nothing is censored from the “worst
possible scenario” imagination of Ferrara and his
scrib partner. In fact, the grimier and grimmer, the more
Ferrara the effort. Arguably, from his first feature credit
forward (DRILLER KILLER), and to BAD LEUITENANT and beyond,
he is not unlike a latter-day Samuel Fuller, making tough,
over-the-top but still strangely satisfying shock flicks
that leave you emotionally devastated and feeling…
transgressed?
No doubt, there is an element of fallen Catholicism that
runs throughout MS.
45, again recalling the perfect
blending of guilt and self-denial running through the
Scorcese/Schrader combos. Ferrara arranges for his protagonist
Thana – brilliantly portrayed by then 17-year old
Zoë Tamerlis – to transform before our horrified
eyes from a mute, withdrawn garment worker, oppressed
by leering  males
and glass ceilings everywhere she turns every day of her
life. She puts up with her horrible fate, shyly trying
to get through the day with her head bowed and unnoticed.
But when she
is brutally and sadistically raped twice
in one horrible day by different rapists, Thana can no
longer wear her veil of self-denial.
Suffering from traumatic stress disorder, Thana begins
to carry a .45 with her everywhere she goes, ready to
pull a Bernard Goetz in drag at a moment’s notice.
Because she is suffering delusional flashbacks in which
almost any man who invades her body space – some
accidentally and others intentionally – literally
become her original attackers, Thana has no remorse in
pulling her weapon and methodically blasting her opponents
to death. The image of a once-timid girl reduced to vengeful
‘angel’ of retribution is unsettling to say
the least. The fact Thana regularly begins donning the
habit of a nun riffs on the at once angelic and provocative
nature of victim/victimizer dual-natured role she is cracking
into, albeit slowly. As she readies for a killing, she
solemnly kisses each bullet in a  sacrilege
on the Catholic Mass. This is heavy, mythic stuff, on
the level of Phoenix-like ascension from the ashes and
all that rot. Except under Ferrara’s handling, it
is anything but rotten, despite it’s relentlessly
accurate depiction of the rotten “nightmare alleys”
in NYC before Disney and Rudy G. “cleaned them up.”
And who can deny the horribly poignant undertone of ex-Catholics
feeling abused and wanting to hurt their transgressors
with today's "Father FeelGood" headlines? 
When MS. 45 “hit” the theaters
in 1981, nobody was ready for it, despite the fact TAXI
DRIVER was already half a decade earlier and easily more
violent, disturbing and unflinching. Of course, TAXI DRIVER
was a studio flick, as hard as that is to believe these
days (can you imagine the poor sap at a studio who would
green light TAXI DRIVER now; probably be canned before
the day was out). And MS. 45 was a tiny,
independent flick that was released by a non-studio. All
of which translated into easy pickings by the  feminists
of the period, many of whom correctly surmised the underlying
misogyny and latent sadism in the usual grindhouse drivel
playing on 42nd in the day. But this is anything but usual,
and so the criticism was misdirected towards the one flick
that seemed to be addressing the imbalance, however sexistly
rendered from a "male chauvinist's" point of
view.
Despite the intensely disturbing nature of MS.
45, it is interesting to note that while a majority
of the initial critics lambasted the early rape sequences
that motivate Thana’s cruel but understandable revenge,
they often failed to inflict anywhere near the same venom
on the ensuing acts of atrocity she commits on innocent
men. The glaring lack of consistency suggests it’s
okay to kill an innocent man (as Thana does during a very
suspenseful alley scene in which a decent guy tries to
return a package she has accidentally dropped) if a “bad
man has wronged you” even though the dead man is
just as “innocent” as  Thana!
Ferrara and St. John are clearly aware this irony, as
it is built into the story and flick. But it is interesting
that in the hysteria of “burn ‘em at the stake,”
no one bothers to “blame” Thana for her actions.
And given the final target of her fury (her exploitative
garment industry boss), one can clearly make the case
the flick is as subversively political in nature as was
Ferrara’s THE KING OF NEW YORK, albeit in a less
blackly comic manner (though the flick has its share of
humorous moments).
All psychobabble aside, MS. 45 succeeds
as gritty, street brutal ‘entertainment,’
if that’s the correct word, because it feels so
unpredictable. At each and every turn, Ferrara turns the
screws tighter, and watching the mute Thana react to the
increasing pressure to extract her bloody body count has
an undeniably cathartic effect, not unlike MAD MAX or
THE WILD BUNCH, equally brutally effective revenge melodramas.
--
Notes by R.U. Holden..
S
What
Critics Say:
“You’d think that making a
movie with a mute as the main character would be next
to impossible, but Ferrara and Tamerlis pull it off. It’s
impressive watching Thana transform from naïve young
innocent in the beginning of the film to the bitch-goddess-destroyer…
every bit the exploitation classic it’s been championed
as over the past twenty  years.”
--  CULTURE
DOSE
“[Ms. 45] was second-billed to
‘Amin: The Rise and Fall’ at a sleazy 42nd
Street theater, not far from the garment district where
Thana is employed [in the movie]… mute Thana represents
all the women of the world who don't speak out against
the daily outrages they are subjected to from men (bosses,
boyfriends, strangers): a constant barrage of come-ons,
orders, insults, patronizing conversation. ‘I just
wish they would leave me alone,’ she writes, but
she hasn't the nerve or the capacity to tell men to ‘Fuck
off.’” -- Danny Peary, CULT MOVIES
2
“Thankfully Ferrara keeps this one tight and short
(unlike THE ADDICTION) and it keeps the attention the
whole way through. Gory but a gotta see.” -- EDINBURGH
UNIVERSITY FILM SOCIETY
"A brilliant, gory -- and finally human -- cult classic."
-- Jeffrey Anderson, THE SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER |
|
Mysterians, The
aka
Earth Defense Force. Starring Kenji Sahara,
Akihiko Hirata & Yumi Shirakawa. EFX by Eiji Tsuburaya.
Directed by Ishiro Honda.
Only
a real Grinch at heart couldn't love a flick so amiably
pleasant and entertainingly diverting as THE MYSTERIANS
(1957) . A super-rarity for decades,
this early Toho classic is a real charmer, complete with
scary aliens who want to mate with Earth women, a giant
robot who smashes everything in its path, and of course
the required flying saucers.
 In
essence, THE MYSTERIANS was Toho's answer
to the spectacular success of George Pal's WAR OF THE
WORLDS. Though very different movies, they share a trait
of serious-mindedness that is altogether rare if not absent
in later kaiju efforts.
Further,
actual Japanese stars take center stage in the thespian
roles. And while no one looks to rubber suit monster flix
for Anthony Hopkins style acting, it's still refreshing
to have believable actors who underplay rather than the
more obnoxious mugging so common in later efforts.
The most refreshing aspect is the actual tension generated
by the race against time aspect of the storyline. As the
earth scientists work in harmony to devise a technological
demise to the invaders' superior abilities, the stakes
actually feel at risk instead of inevitable, unlike later
and more pandering kaiju flix.
In terms of harmony of direction and effects, the venerable
duo of Honda and Tsuburaya is at its very best in this
saga. Though as dated as Pal's WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE
MYSTERIANS is equally charmingly so, and therefore
a bona fide "must see" for fans of either gentlemen,
kaiju cinema or alien invasion flix. -- Notes by Matt
Black.
 What
Critics Say:
"Ishirô Honda
tale of technological ingenuity vs. a superior invading
force... special FX in THE MYSTERIANS are
almost uniformly top-notch... nobody does buildings consumed
in sheets of flame or earthquake damage like a Japanese
FX crew." -- Bad Movie Report, STOMP TOKYO
"When
I was young I remember that the 'Marcolights' were pretty
cool and the music was very dramatic. The music still
sounds good today... You may be pleasantly surprised to
see the leader of the Seven Samurai as the head scientist."
-- gjhong, IMDB.com
 "Perhaps
the most intriguing of all Toho sci-fi films." --
Ken Hanke, MOUNTAIN XPRESS
"The
actor playing the Leader of the Mysterians was Yoshio
Tsuchiya. He also played the Vapor Man in HUMAN
VAPOR, Controller of Planet X in GODZILLA
VS. MONSTER ZERO, and Businessman Shindo in GODZILLA VS.
KING GHIDORAH... Eiji Tsuburaya's advanced special effects
highlight a battle of fire, lasers, rockets, tanks, and
flying saucers between the humans and space aliens...
A cool alien invasion movie." -- Oliver Chu, IMDB.com
"A
surprisingly serviceable science fiction film... Honda's
aliens arrive in giant pyramids, anticipating CHARIOTS
OF THE GODS by 20 years, and proceed to stomp the Japanese
countryside in high style." -- Dave Kehr, CHICAGO
READER
Like this flick? See also: BAMBOO
SAUCER;
THE
DARK;
THE EYE CREATURES;
HUMAN
VAPOR;
| |
Reviews:
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